U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are spearheading a push to use the Senate’s short list of legislative victories as political ammunition against Republicans in 2020.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (3rd R) speaks to members of the media at the U.S. Capitol after the weekly Republican Senate policy luncheon January 9, 2019 |Alex Wong, Getty Images

The Lansing Democrat and Schumer hatched the idea of U.S. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as “steward of the ‘legislative graveyard,’” Politico reported on Monday.

“People don’t understand that if the Senate does not become a Democratic majority, we will see Sen. McConnell do the same thing, just stopping everything,” Stabenow told Politico.

A Democratic majority would be more receptive to a broader range of debates, she said.

“Every single one of our members that is a ranking member right now is just chomping at the bit so they can chair a committee,” Stabenow said.

Republicans are meanwhile blaming Democrats for Senate stagnation.

But even some Republicans are — behind-the-scenes — acknowledging the danger for the GOP of the “legislative graveyard” characterization, according to Politico.

Michael Gerstein covers the governor’s office, criminal justice and the environment. Before that, he wrote about state government and politics for the Detroit News, the Associated Press and MIRS News and won a Society of Professional Journalism award for open government reporting. He studied philosophy at Michigan State University, where he wrote for both The State News and Capital News Service. He began his journalism career freelancing for The Sturgis Journal, his hometown paper.